1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a new and improved safety fuse element or fuse link and method of manufacturing such safety fuse element or fuse link.
In its more specific aspects, the safety fuse element of the present development is of the type comprising an electrically insulated housing within which there is located or formed a hollow compartment open at both of the opposite ends thereof and continuously extending along the longitudinal axis of the housing. Two electrically conductive end contacts connected with the housing are located at the region of the open ends of the housing. A fuse wire or conductor is arranged within the housing and extends approximately concentrically with respect to the longitudinal axis of the housing. Each end of the fuse wire or conductor is electrically conductively connected with an associated one of the end contacts.
2. Discussion of the Background and Material Information
Safety fuse elements or fuse links of the aforementioned type, which are predominantly termed safety fuse inserts, and also fuse inserts, are known to the art in different constructions. In particular, when such safety fuse elements are miniaturized, there exists a real need to construct such safety fuse elements to be arc-inhibiting or arc-suppressing. However, due to their small dimensions the present day conventional measures are extensively unsuitable for achieving this objective. Even though the known safety fuse elements sometimes, in fact, possess really small dimensions, they are still not practically suitable for use as surface mounted devices (SMD).
A spate of publications exist concerning "surface mounted techniques" or "surface mounted technology" (SMT) and "surface mounted devices" (SMD). With SMT the connection pins or legs of the SMD are soldered at a soldering zone or pad by means of the reflow soldering method or the wave soldering method.